


Secret Lairs and Invitations

by navaan



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Community: wintercompanion, Ficlet, Jack Harkness Flirts, M/M, Pre-Slash, Tenth Doctor Era, The Hub (Torchwood), Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 11:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11713428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Jack had a long, very Torchwood day. Maybe he's up for a trip anyway.





	Secret Lairs and Invitations

Jack had spent a week hunting for the Cyberman parts that had caused trouble in Cardiff for weeks. It was never fun when organized crime got hold of the kind of alien technology that could wipe out humanity.

 _Part_ of Cybermen seemed safe enough - until the reactivated and tried to find the Cyberman they belonged to or started conversion.

The fun thing hadn't been collecting the parts in the end. A Cyberhead had nearly reactivated a whole pack of little, very dangerous Cybermats. Jack had spent half of the day running, half of the day making sure Tosh had got all of the little buggers for sure.

Finally, they had both been sure that not one of the Cybermats had escaped, packed the SUV and had driven the whole way back to Cardiff, taking turns. He dropped Tosh close to her flat.

"Just put all of it away before Ianto comes by, Jack. You know how he gets around Cyberparts."

"We don't want to make our lovely coffee boy sad." He threw a two fingered salute at Tosh, who by now looked tired enough to just fall over, and then sped away towards his own inviting place of rest inside the HUB. He dragged the bags of defunct parts from the back of the SUV and set to work. It always was a pain to go through all the safety procedures with parts as tricky as Cyberman remains. There was no room for error.

He started processing them one by one in the vault.

It was the right work to be done at night, when the HUB was silent and Jack was all by himself.

"Better than boring paperwork," he muttered, but knew he was trying to fool himself.

He prepared the final part to go in the vault, closed the hatch and waited for the sound of self-sealing, when... blaring music started up upstairs in the command centre. Music. Terrible, loud music.

Very specific music too.

_Volare, oh oh_

_Cantare, oh oh oh oh_

He was running the moment the final "oh" sounded through the halls and all the while grinned like a maniac. "Doctor!" he shouted.

"Volare?" the disgruntled voice answered him, barely audible over the Gipsy King song. "Are you being serious?"

The Tardis stood in the middle of the room like it had always been there and the Doctor - pinstriped blue suit, messy hair, wearing ridiculous sunglasses - had his screwdriver in one hand, and was already busy getting rid of the music.

"Worked, didn't it?" Jack grinned.

"Your Doctor alarm is _Volare_?"

"Nel blu dipinto di blu," Jack sang along with the dying song, making his point as he threw a look towards the Tardis just in time before it faded out.

The Doctor sighed. "This is a terrible pun, even for you."

Jack shrugged. "I need to amuse myself."

The Doctor sniffed, obviously relieved the music had finally stopped and probably preparing to fill the silence with his own chatter now.

"What brings you here?" he asked, before the Doctor could get started.

The man held up a Cybermat. "Missed one. Sloppy work."

"Ahhhh," Jack said good-naturedly, not willing at all to rise to the bait. Being admonished had lost its sting over the years of immortality. "You got that just to have a reason to see me." He grinned and wriggled his eyebrows.

"Of course," the Doctor agreed and shrugged his thin shoulders. "I was finally curious about your secret lair."

Jack laughed and extended his arms. "You know you are always welcome to visit me here. I picked the music for dancing specifically."

"Ha!" The Doctor jumped a little as he threw the dead Cybermat at Jack. "Time to get out of your cave, Jack. Even your jokes sound tired."

The Doctor was already half inside the Tardis, calling: "Where do you want to go?"

All protests washed away.

The familiar hum of the Tardis sounded like an invitation. The Doctor looked like he really wanted Jack to come.

And Jack - tired and beat as he was right now - had never been able to resist that man.

Never.

Not today either.

"Vacation sounds like a good idea."

"Ah," the Doctor promised. "I know just the spot!"

The Tardis door fell closed behind Jack, who still cradled the Cybermat in one arm. Vacation was usually a good adventure to start with.


End file.
